As they passed through the ornate gates, a large hall opened up before them. Hearing a strange rustle from above, Sunny raised his head and saw tall windows with stained glass panes soaring to the distant ceiling. During the day, the hall must have been filled with cascading rays of beautiful light.
Currently, though, several young women were nimbly moving from one window to another, draping them with thick sheets of crude fabric. The makeshift wooden ladders they used creaked and cracked, creating a strange and almost melodic sound.
It seemed as though the sheets of fabric were being fastened in a way that prevented even the smallest glint of light from escaping the castle during the night. Sunny suspected that every window in the marble fortress was currently being covered in the same way.
Just as this thought appeared in his mind, a loud noise thundered behind their backs. Turning around, he saw the ornate gates closing. The two guards who had met them outside were already sliding a heavy iron bolt into the sockets, their faces red from strain. The massive bar must have weighed more than the two of them combined.
The castle was now sealed from the outside world, ready to face the onslaught of cursed darkness.
Suddenly, Sunny felt like an animal caught in a cage.
Trying to calm himself down, he looked around and noticed an opulent wooden desk that looked completely out of place in the grand hall. It must have been dragged here from some other part of the marble citadel. Behind the desk, a gaunt young man with nervous eyes was writing something down on a piece of parchment.
The whole thing looked strangely similar to a reception desk in a luxurious hotel… or, rather, to what Sunny imagined such a thing would look like. He had never actually been to a hotel, of course.
Hesitating for a few moments, he walked over to the desk and addressed the young man:
"Hey. Uh… we've been told that someone will meet us inside."
The castle receptionist flinched and looked up from his paper, a fearful expression appearing on his face. When he realized who was speaking to him, though, the fear disappeared, replaced by a tentative smile.
The young man had a thin face and a pale, unhealthy complexion. He looked hungry and weak, much more like those poor souls in the outer settlement than someone who lived in the castle. His clothes, however, were clean and tidy, without any signs of wear and tear like that of the people outside.
"Ah, guests! Sorry, you gave me a fright there. Welcome, welcome to the Bright Castle. Whoah, you were just in time. A couple of minutes later, and the gates would have been closed."
Saying that, he threw a tense glance at the two guards and then quickly looked away.
"Anyway, my name is Harper. I'm responsible for guest accommodations today. Let's get you… oh! I don't seem to recognize you guys. Is this your first time paying the tribute?"
Sunny stared at him for a couple of seconds, feeling Cassie squeeze his shoulder a little tighter, then said:
"Yes."
Harper smiled.
"Congratulations! You might not even suspect it, but I was once in your shoes myself. In fact, it was just a few months ago. But ever since Lord Gunlaug graced me with his kindness, I've been living in the safety of the castle. You'll love it here too, I'm sure."
'...Right.'
Sunny didn't know if the young man was sincere in his gratitude to the local tyrant or was simply saying these things for the guards to hear, and honestly, he didn't care.
What piqued his interest, though, was that Harper did not seem as surprised by the timing of their arrival into the Dark City as Effie had been. But then he realized that people living in the castle might not have known who came to the outer settlement and when.
They would probably assume that he and Cassie had entered the Dream Realm close to the ruins and then spent the last two months scrounging for soul shards to pay their way into the castle. This was a good detail to know, since Sunny didn't want to announce the true extent of their competence just yet.
Judging by how impressed Effie was by the fact that they had managed to carve their way through the Labyrinth, this would attract a lot of unnecessary attention.
He smiled with the corner of his mouth.
"So, what do we need to do now?"
Harper picked up his quill and opened a large ledger.
"That's very simple, really. I'll just need your names to mark when the two of you paid the tribute, and that's pretty much it. We have a lot of spare rooms here, especially in the Tower of Dusk. It is very quiet, so how about I settle you there?"
There was a nervous glint in his eyes.
'Tower of Dusk… probably means that it's in the western part of the castle, facing the Crimson Spire. No wonder people don't want to live there.'
But to Sunny, fewer people meant less danger. He gave the gaunt young man a nod.
"Sure. No problem."
Harper smiled.
"Great! That's great! Uh, so your names…"
Sunny interrupted him, trying to avoid dangerous questions:
"I'm Sunless, and this is Cassia."
The young man wrote their names down and marked the date of their arrival. Sunny stared at his neat handwriting, his eyes locked on the short strings of numbers.
So… it had actually been exactly seventy-seven days since the night they had arrived on the Forgotten Shore. The three of them had scrupulously kept track of time for a while, but after their harrowing experience with the Soul Devourer, Sunny had lost the grasp on the actual count.
Out there in the real world, the spring was already starting. A whole season had passed.
…It felt like a lifetime.
Not paying any attention to the storm raging inside Sunny's heart, Harper closed the ledger and offered them a polite smile.
"All done. Now, leave your worries behind and follow me. Between these walls, you are completely safe. Nothing is going to hurt you!"
His tone was jovial, but Sunny didn't miss the quick glance Harper threw at the menacing guards standing silently by the sealed gate.